connoisseur:
(plural: ‘connoisseurs‘; pronunciation: the letter ‘c’ is said with a ‘k’ sound as in “king” — for the right pronunciation of this word, please click here)
an art connoisseur examining a painting
a person who has a good understanding of a subject, such as fine arts, food, wine, etc.; a cognoscente;
a person who has thorough knowledge of a particular subject and who can make an impartial judgement; an expert, e.g. a connoisseur of fine arts — paintings; a connoisseur of wines,
a wine connoisseur tasting wine
Mash, my only son, is becoming a connoisseur of wines; he has invitations from wine makers in other parts of Europe to participate in their ‘wine cellar shows’.
Some people get these two words ‘connoisseur’ and ‘fan’ mixed up because they think a person who likes something very much is a connoisseur, but in fact, one can’t be a pizza connoisseur just because one has eaten it for a number of times as most of us do!
There is this question of whether a connoisseur of something must know everything about that something, for instance, if Mr. X is an art connoisseur, should he know how to paint or should he have painted some grand paintings before we called him an art connoisseur!
